Different Types of Google Ad Bid Strategies

Google Ads is a great way to grow your business, but it can be a complex platform to understand. If done correctly, the correct Google Ads strategy and management can increase traffic to your website, sales, and net sales.

However, if you’re a business owner, you likely have a million little fires to tend to at any one time. Hiring, procurement, legal, operations, and other tasks consume your precious free time. When you do have time for marketing, you likely don’t have the familiarity with Google Ads to dive into all the different levers you can pull.

One of the most important levers you can pull when managing Google Ads is your bid strategy. These algorithm directions are a great way to match Ad campaigns to your overarching business needs. Knowing which bid strategy is right for you can be the difference between success and failure, and it’s crucial to be aware of the topline differences between each.

These are just a few terms, definitions, and strategies you could use in a Google Ad campaign. Please consult our team for a customs consultation if you have a specific business need to review.

Maximizing Your Bidding in Google Ads

This is more than a specific bidding strategy as an umbrella term covering a few different bidding types. In this grouping, you’re directing Google to use an automated bidding strategy to “maximize” a defined metric. We’ll get into which works best for specific goals and industries, but the general idea is to let Google know your end goal and then utilize Google’s algorithms to help you reach that end goal.

Clicks

In a maximize clicks bidding strategy, Google attempts to get you as many clicks as possible from the daily budget you have specified.

 

  • Pros: Great for getting traffic to a website.
  • Cons: That traffic might be less high quality.
  • Best For: Brands looking to increase web traffic, even if some of the traffic isn’t ideal.
  • Not For: Brands looking to measure return on ad spend.

 

Conversions

A Maximize Conversions value is a great way to increase the number of “conversion” actions you have received from Google. This can be any action undertaken by a potential customer. Depending on your unique needs, it could be calling your hotline, submitting a quote form, signing up for a newsletter, or purchasing from an e-commerce store. Ensure your conversion actions are adequately set up and recorded for the best results.

 

  • Pros: Great for increasing specific actions that you want to measure.
  • Cons: When you focus on maximizing conversions, you’re making the conscious decision to focus on users who are likelier to convert. This can lead to higher-quality web traffic, but it can net you less web traffic than a Maximize clicks strategy. Knowing the difference is incumbent on your PPC agency or point person.
  • Best For: Brands who want to increase the number of sales or leads received but cannot put a specific dollar amount on every conversion action. Think of a law firm measuring calls about a potential case. Some cases could be much more lucrative than others, and it makes more sense for the law firm to maximize the number of Google Ads conversions than try to assign specific dollars to specific calls.
  • Not For: Brands looking to build awareness or traffic. Maximizing conversions will net you fewer impressions and clicks than other bid strategies.

 

Conversion Value

Maximizing conversion value increases the value of the average order you receive. Think of a jewelry reseller looking to focus on high-dollar bulk orders versus smaller one-offs.

 

  • Pros: Great for increasing dollar value.
  • Cons: Maximizing conversion value is an excellent strategy for those who can measure dollar value accurately, but it needs to be tested head-to-head with a Maximize Conversions strategy. Suppose your goal is maximizing the return on your Google Ad spend. In that case, it’s worth remembering that sometimes, many smaller conversions could be more significant than a few large purchases and vice versa. Because of this, we always recommend testing out both bid strategies to determine what works best for you.
  • Best For: E-commerce stores.
  • Not For: Industries with large amounts of variation from job to job should avoid a Maximize Conversion Value Bid Strategy. (Again, think of our law firm example.)

 

Manual CPC

A manual cost-per-click strategy is a more advanced bidding strategy, and we do not recommend it for beginners. Google operates on a “pay-per-click model” where advertisers are only charged for every click their ad receives. Google uses an automated bidding market to determine who ranks for specific searches. Advertisers willing to pay higher dollar figures per click, provided that their ads are high-quality and relevant to the investigation, will show them higher on the page. In Google’s automated bid strategies, the nuts and bolts of the bidding are automated and never touched by the PPC manager.

However, in a manual cost-per-click strategy, the PPC manager can bid higher on specific keywords and adjust bids based on results.

 

  • Pros: This is highly focused on specific keywords to maximize the budget. The PPC manager also has much more control over their levers.
  • Cons: Manual CPC bidding is time-intensive and laborious, often stopping many PPC managers from implementing it.
  • Best For: Brands willing to pay more for specific, high-quality keywords and have the bandwidth to monitor and adjust bids frequently.
  • Not For: Advertisers with small budgets and low bandwidth.

 

Partner With JSL

Are you interested in growing your business with Google Ads? Contact JSL Marketing & Web Design for your free PPC consultation and strategy session today!

Social Media Tips & Tricks for 2024

If you’re a business owner, you likely already use social media to reach out to your customers and potential customers. Every day, countless decisions, like what to buy, what business to call, and what restaurant to walk to, are made via social media. If you’re not using social media to have a seat at the table during these decisions, you’re missing out. Innovative brands understand this and have been using social media for years to remedy this.

However, social media is an ever-evolving discipline; what once worked well might need to be revised. Your audience and industry are evolving. Your social media game needs to, as well. Read on to help you plan out your 2024 social media strategy!

Use Video

The days of written posts are long gone.  Short Form video is dominating social media platforms, and brands that don’t utilize video will have a more challenging time keeping the attention of their viewers. Typically, videos between 15 seconds and 2 minutes perform best on social media.

Make It Interactive

People don’t go on social media to learn about your brand. That may be painful to hear, but it’s true. Now, your customers and potential customers get on social media to have fun, and if you can make learning about your brand fun, then you’re in a good place. Making social media posts interactive is a great way to do that.

We recommend utilizing polls, pictures of your staff events, shoutouts for employee birthdays and anniversaries, and other interactive elements to keep this fun and exciting atmosphere. Remember, you’re not using social media merely to educate your clients, although that is a benefit. You’re also there to beta-test new product ideas, hear feedback, and deal with customer service questions. Create an interactive atmosphere on your social media profiles to keep that two-street between you and your customers alive.

Plan It Out

You don’t necessarily need to plan out every element of your social media marketing a year in advance, but you need to think it through. Having time to plan out in advance allows you to create written or visual content well in advance so that you can be prepared. We recommend planning at least a quarter. In our experience, this is far enough to get content ready but close enough that you have more visibility into your social media profile’s current performance and trends.

Research, Research, Research

It can be easy to think of social media as only the process of writing posts and developing content. However, research can often be neglected in the social media process. Understanding what your audience cares about, what others in the social media space are doing, and your industry is crucial to developing great content for your audience.

Tailor Your Approach By Platform

Many social media managers fall into the trap of “cutting once” when working on their social media calendar. If they have an interactive and well-researched post planned for Facebook, then it seems scalable to take this post and copy it over to LinkedIn. This might be easier, but it’s not always the right approach.

There are massive differences between LinkedIn and Facebook audiences, value propositions, and content. Social media managers must be aware of this when planning their social calendars, or they risk falling flat on one platform versus another. What might be educational on LinkedIn might be dull on Facebook.

It’s also worth remembering that not all platforms need to be equal for your marketing strategy. TikTok and Instagram will likely be your focus if you’re a jewelry reseller focused on reaching women under 30.

If you’re a law firm focused on reaching business HR departments, you must spend most of your time on LinkedIn. You can, of course, still use a variety of platforms. Our fictional law firm should still be on Facebook and Instagram, and our jewelry reseller should have a LinkedIn presence. However, both should ensure they’re spending the most time and resources on only the most relevant platforms.

Decide Whether TikTok is for You

TikTok is not for everyone, and we recommend that every business consider if this channel is the right fit for their marketing needs. However, TikTok is a dominant social media channel, and the app’s market share and audience share do not look to fall off at all in 2024. With over 1 billion users, TikTok is a massive piece of the social media pie. If you’ve traditionally only used Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn, it might be time to consider branching out to TikTok. This is especially true if your target audience is younger or your brand uses an e-commerce store.

Contact JSL Marketing & Web Design

Social media marketing can be challenging, but planning your marketing strategy doesn’t need to be. Contact JSL Marketing & Web Design for a custom social media evaluation and strategy session and take your social media presence to the next level in 2024!

4 Different Types of Marketing Strategies

Marketing strategies can certainly be complicated. If you’ve ever tried to message potential customers, you’ve likely experienced how convoluted marketing can be.

There’s an infinite number of tactics you can use to message your potential customers, and it can be easy to feel overwhelmed, especially if you don’t come from a marketing background. Unfortunately, marketing terminology can also be filled with jargon. With so many variables and terms to learn, it can be easy to get a little lost.

The best way to deal with confusing terminology is to define the term you’re struggling with! That led the JSL Marketing & Web Design team to lay out some of the most common marketing strategies you might run across to ensure you fully understand these terms when evaluating your business strategy.

It’s important to note that these marketing strategies are not all mutually exclusive; savvy businesses might use several techniques in tandem for the best results. However, knowing a few of these marketing strategies as you think through how to grow your business is worthwhile.

Competitive Conquesting

Competitive conquesting is a marketing strategy where businesses go head-to-head against their competitors. This is at play in most marketing, but a competitive conquesting marketing strategy takes it up a notch and places the difference between you and your competition front and center.

If you’ve ever done a SWOT analysis and evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of your competition, you’ve likely begun the foundations of a solid competitive conquesting marketing strategy. Knowing what separates you from the competition is the first step in conveying that difference to potential customers. Competitive conquesting can be worked into many different marketing tactics.

There are many ways to incorporate competitive conquesting into your marketing, whether developing content on your website around what separates you from a competitor, targeting keywords around your competitors on Google Ads, or sending emails to customers who left your business for a competitor.

Some businesses might not want this bold confrontation in their marketing, and that’s fine. Others, however, might see the value in knowing how to speak to potential customers about the competition.

Recommended Tactics: Pay-per-click advertising and email marketing

Recommended For: Businesses with small lists of competitors and distinct value propositions compared to those competitors.

Cross-Sell/Up-Sell

Selling is hard. Anyone who has spent time in sales or revenue operations knows this. That’s one of the many reasons brands consistently see better success reselling to core and profitable customers. After all, these customers are already familiar with your solution and often will buy quickly. The result is that you put less resources and time into marketing and see quicker success!

Recommended Tactics: Email marketing, sales collateral, and social media

Recommended For: Businesses where renewal conversations could be highly lucrative. For instance, cross-selling and upselling will only go so far with a fast-food restaurant. A manufacturing firm, however, could see a massive expansion if they could win a new job from a new business unit for their largest customer.

Brand Awareness

Thinking of the marketing funnel or buyer’s journey when conceptualizing brand awareness is essential. Every purchase, whether a new coffee or home, begins with understanding, moves on to consideration and then ends with a purchase.

There are more complicated and industry-specific paths, but this is true at a high level for all brands. Brand awareness marketing aims to make quick contact with potential customers and educate them about the problem your brand solves. You can’t purchase from a business if you know nothing about the company!

Recommended Tactics: Advertising, whether via broadcast television, print marketing, or digital marketing through tactics like display or YouTube, is typically how brands increase their potential customer’s brand awareness of their solution.

Recommended For: All businesses should use some element of brand awareness in their marketing. However, it is most impactful for brands with short sales cycles. Knowing and recognizing your brand increases the odds of a spontaneous purchase, especially when the product is a commodity.

Educating The Buyer

All marketers should look to educate their buyers about their solutions. That’s just good marketing. However, specific industries need to educate more than others. If you’re a neighborhood coffee shop, you likely don’t need to educate your prospects about what a cappuccino is and why they should want it.

If you’re a manufacturing firm looking to highlight a new type of production, you might need to educate about your solution. This type of marketing will likely focus on technical and well-written content about the problem your buyer faces and how you can help solve it.

Recommend Tactics: Whitepapers, blogs, case studies, and other well-written and designed pieces of material.

Recommend For: Brands with long and technically complex buying cycles. Business-to-business companies, in particular, should focus on education as a critical linchpin of their marketing strategy.

Plan Your Marketing Strategy With JSL Marketing & Web Design

These are just a few marketing strategies brands can use to reach customers. However, as mentioned previously, not all marketing strategies suit all businesses.

What works well for a local coffee stand might not work well for a more prominent manufacturer. Indeed, two businesses in the same industry might see vastly different results from the same strategy based on their unique region, company, and strategic situation.

For help developing your perfect marketing strategy, turn to JSL Marketing & Web Design!

We offer:

 

  • PPC Advertising
  • Web Design
  • Content Marketing
  • Social Media Marketing
  • Brand Collateral
  • & More!

How Do I Market to Existing Customers?

Marketing is a challenging discipline. Knowing the pain points of your potential customers, the pertinent industry trends, and marketing best practices takes time.

In comparison, selling to existing customers sounds relatively simple. After all, they’re already customers of your business, so convincing them to buy should be more accessible. Marketing can be nixed entirely, right?

Indeed, convincing current customers to buy more or a different product can be easier. Many businesses recognize this and dedicate resources to grow existing customers into top-dollar accounts.

However, many businesses don’t provide adequate marketing support when they are looking to grow their current customers into repeat brand advocates; their account teams can struggle. Marketing to existing customers differs from reaching out to net new contacts, but marketing is still required.

Consider What You Know

Focus on building this relationship in all marketing elements for best results. Feedback from your sales team or account team is crucial for best results, and you should consult with these teams to understand how to best market to this client. What are the client’s goals? What’s happening in their industry or business model? Do they have new products or business units coming down the pike?

The example above focuses on a B2B example, where you might have a salesperson or account manager to consult with since the accounts are larger. However, the basic idea holds for B2C marketing as well. If you run an online store, you likely have done segmenting of your customers based on what they have purchased or their expressed interests.

Even if you don’t know the unique identifiers of any given customer, you likely do know your existing customers’ overarching aggregated pain points and profiles. Focus on this when you develop your marketing strategy for existing profiles.

There are various ways to implement this knowledge. Maybe it’s sending new product launch emails to customers who have purchased similar products or styles. Perhaps it’s developing sales collateral that highlights a unique value proposition of your brand vs a close competitor.

Maybe it’s taking research from questionnaires answered by existing customers to develop new products and services and then announcing those new products and services on social media. Regardless of how you do this, just be sure you incorporate what you know about the customer into your marketing for the best results.

Consider Tactics

Not all marketing tactics are excellent methods of reaching existing customers. Advertising, for instance, is usually a costly and inefficient way of reaching current customers. Advertising can work wonders for acquiring new customers, but we don’t recommend it for messaging to your current customer base. Consider these marketing tactics when reaching out to existing customers.

Social Media

Social media is a great way to stay on the top of your current customers’ minds. Someone who follows your business’s social media platforms is likely aware of your brand. Using their attention on your social media platforms is a great way to stay top of mind.

It is important to remember that social media is not the time and place to push for sales and sales only. Promoting new products and deals on your social media platforms is perfectly alright, so long as you don’t do it incessantly.

Remember, your customers follow you on social media to learn about your brand, and while that includes promotions and deals, it shouldn’t only include self-promotion. We recommend emphasizing interactive forms of social media. Polls, brand videos, and announcements of new products make great social media content.

Photos of your business and staff can also be a great way to humanize your brand and show off the human element of your business. Office parties, company volunteering outings, and staff birthdays can make great social media posts for your business.

Email Marketing

Email marketing is a great way to engage your past and current customers. For one, you have contact information to use when reaching out about new sales, products, and promotions. Email marketing is also highly automated, low-cost, and quite efficient regarding Return on Investment. If done right, you can utilize your CRM and automated email marketing to keep your top customers aware of important opportunities and trends with your brand.

For best results, be sure that you’re keeping track of what matters to your existing customers. Knowing your customers’ services, past purchases, and preferences is critical for effective email marketing. Let’s say that you run an e-commerce store that sells sports jerseys. The effectiveness of your email marketing campaigns will be diluted if you announce every new jersey, regardless of the sport or team, to the entire database via email marketing. Maybe you’ll get some traffic and sales, but you will likely send out irrelevant emails to your base, which only increases the odds that your customers will slowly stop responding to your emails, and that’s the last thing you want.

Instead, a better action would be tagging every customer contact for the team and sport they purchased for. You could then use this information to send information about new rugby jerseys only to those who purchased rugby apparel in the past and so on for hockey, baseball, and basketball. This approach lets you serve only relevant information to your customers and increase the amount of opens, clicks, and sales you drive.

Sales Collateral

Your sales and account teams, if your business model includes these client-facing teams, offer you some great opportunities. These teams can be an excellent vector for personalized messaging to relevant stakeholders at your client accounts. If you have the resources, consider developing relevant and engaging sales collateral to support these conversations.

Sales collateral can be used for educating prospective clients. Still, suitable types of whitepapers, battle cards, and case studies can help market to current customers considering a new product or service. Creating compelling and visually appealing content helps educate the relevant buyers and increases the odds of a sale.

Focus On the Relationship

One of the most significant advantages when marketing to existing customers is that you already have a relationship with your contacts, whether it’s a face-to-face relationship through Sales or a digital connection through their patronage of your e-commerce store. Focus on building this relationship in all marketing elements for best results.

This will vary from brand to brand and customer to customer. It might make sense to invite a large B2B customer to a sit-down fireside chat about your industry to build a relationship with key decision-makers at that account. This highly personalized approach might not work well for B2C customers.

However, sending out an email to your most loyal online store customers with a flash sale as a thank you for their patronage is an excellent way to build that relationship. Again, the approach won’t see universal execution,  but it is essential that you still focus on the trust and rapport you have created with your customer.

Their positive feelings about your brand are one of the main reasons they’re likely to purchase again; highlight that relationship and trumpet it in your marketing to existing customers for the best results.

Contact JSL for Marketing Strategy

If you need help managing your existing strategy for marketing to current customers, call JSL Marketing & Web Design! We’re an award-winning marketing agency based in Dallas, TX, and we’re ready to put the pedal to the metal for your marketing strategy!

Contact Us Today!

How To Grow a Customer Contract With Marketing

Many small businesses are laser-focused on gaining new customers. This is certainly a linchpin part of marketing, but it is only one piece of a successful marketing strategy. Many small business owners neglect marketing outreach to their current customers, and that can be a big mistake. A well-oiled customer marketing strategy can actually increase contract size, duration, and client retention, often at less of a cost than net-new acquisition.

However, customer marketing is a different beast than outreach to potential customers, and you need to carefully pair your marketing efforts with other teams to successfully grow current customer accounts. JSL Marketing & Web Design got together and came up with these recommendations to help you grow your accounts with marketing.

Learn More About Customer Marketing!

Support Your Account Team

The customer service or client success team is one of the most valuable tools you have at your disposal when trying to grow a current account with marketing. If your business has the account team bandwidth to have recurring check-in calls with your client, you have a line of sight into the pain points, situation, and goals of your client. You need to align with that team and work to develop collateral to support common objections, questions, and requests for information from your clients.

Well-branded and informative collateral is a great resource for the account team to have at its disposal. These pieces of beautiful and informative content allow the account team to leave behind marketing collateral with the client for the best results. Sometimes, the spoken word can only go so far; well-written content can help inform and educate your clients about the benefits of your solutions to their problems.

We recommend…

 

  • One-Sheeters
  • New Product or Service Announcement
  • FAQ Pages
  • Written Case Studies

 

Air-Cover Your Top Accounts With Your Message

Many small businesses don’t continue to send marketing materials to their current customers, and that’s a mistake. Your current customers are much likelier to purchase than a net-new business, so continuing to market toward current customers is a great strategy.

Email marketing is a great way to continue to keep your current customers engaged, but other marketing tactics can be successful as well. LinkedIn Ads, encouraging your customers to follow you on social media, or printed mailers to the customer’s headquarters all have their place.

Oftentimes, small businesses are reluctant to use air cover messaging at a current account, as it’s viewed as a waste. This is a mistake, in our experience. Yes, you want to find the decision-makers at your top accounts for the best results. However, other customers at your top accounts can still help influence the decision-making process, so the greater their exposure to your brand messages, the better. Continuing to send emails, printed mailers, and ads to your current customers is in no way a waste of budget or effort. Keep your accounts engaged and aware, and continue to air-cover them with your advertising; your bottom line will thank you.

Use Other Top Accounts in Reviews

Customer testimonials are a surefire way to entice new customers, but they also are great for current customers as well. People, as a rule, don’t enjoy being sold to and are often always looking for social proof or evidence that your business is the real deal. Customer testimonials are a surefire way to demonstrate this.

Find your top accounts and encourage them to share their experience via a testimonial, whether it’s a written testimonial or a video. These testimonials then become a great piece of content to share with other customers, particularly those customers who are up for renewal or contemplating increasing their contract size.

We also recommend asking for client testimonials from the accounts you hope to grow. Getting feedback from some stakeholders at a customer account and documenting it in a customer testimonial can be a great resource when it comes time to push for a larger contract at that account.

Research Pain Points

Upselling or renewing a customer account isn’t simply an extension of a current contract. Savvy companies are constantly identifying and penetrating into different business units, locations, and services. Your account team will naturally be a great resource for uncovering these opportunities, but we also challenge you to research and understand the brand’s pain points as well.

Market research is a difficult subject to master, but if done right, you’ll understand your customer’s situation, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats well enough to utilize this information in your marketing. Maybe you’ll uncover that one of your top accounts is prioritizing working with vendors that meet some compliance guidelines. This could be a great opportunity to highlight your compliance with said guidelines in your email marketing outreach to the client.

Maybe you’ll learn that your top account is looking to implement a new system or process in the future, and you can start developing web content for the account team to leave behind with the client for further education. The more your marketing team understands the specifics of what your top accounts need, the better you can tailor your marketing to the customer in question.

Grow With JSL

Running a small business is hard. If keeping the lights on and the business running is preventing you from growing your marketing presence, turn to an award-winning Dallas marketing agency to help out!

We offer…

 

  • Brand Development
  • SEO
  • Paid Media
  • Email Marketing
  • Videography
  • Content Marketing

 

Our process is simple; we treat each client as a unique and specific business with specific needs. Our marketing strategies are never cookie-cutter or off-the-shelf. By working with you to understand your unique needs and goals, we’re able to more effectively use your strengths to help you grow. What works well in one industry or context will not always work in others, and that research into your specific situation allows us to treat you as an unrepeatable business.

Contact Us Now for a Free Consultation

3 Tips On How to Segment Your Audience

Segmenting your customers is one of the most important aspects of marketing, but it can often be quite difficult for small businesses to know how to segment their customer base. Marketing at large can be laborious for many small businesses, and effective segmentation is usually quite difficult for most businesses. That’s a shame because segmenting your customers into distinct subgroups is a proven way to increase your revenue and make an impact on your customer base.

Marketing, at the end of the day, is about reaching the right people at the right time with the right message. Without effectively segmenting your target audience into distinct subgroups, you’re likely missing opportunities. Most business owners know this but still continue to market their target audience as if they were all the same. This is a huge mistake and one that is wasting your marketing budget.

Luckily, it’s not all that difficult to segment your customers if you know what to look for. The marketing experts at JSL Marketing & Web Design put together some thoughts on how to guide the way you segment your customer base.

By Behavior

Consider, for example, customers who have added items to their checkout cart from your e-commerce site but have not completed their purchase. Sending promotional emails with reminders and discounted rates is a great way to incentivize purchases. Other behavioral triggers will depend on your business use case but can also be useful ways to segment. Select which triggers make the most sense for your business, whether it’s signing up for a newsletter, visiting your site, or talking to a rep at a community event. The more you can specifically tailor your marketing to specific actions taken by your customer, the more impactful you will be.

By Stage

Segmenting your customer base by the stage they are within the marketing funnel is a great option as well. The reason why is fairly simple. The concerns of a customer who is considering your business are quite different from the concerns of a business who has not heard of your business. Segmenting your customer base by stage helps you understand how you should message during each different stage.

Generally speaking, we often recommend pairing marketing tactics with various stages within the funnel.

 

  • Top of Funnel: paid advertising, SEO
  • Mid Funnel: web content, written assets, video marketing, video advertising
  • Bottom of Funnel: Google Ads, e-commerce pages
  • Current Customers: email marketing
  • Advocacy Stage: written and video testimonials, public reviews

 

By Persona

Marketing personas are an interesting way to divide your target audience. There are different ways of utilizing this marketing research tool, but the general premise is pretty simple. Make a fictitious person who represents your target audience and work to describe their pain points, motivations, and goals as best you can.

For example, if you’re a small vineyard and you want to break up your audience into three distinct personas, you might end up with three different people.

 

Susan: The Conneiouser

  • Attributes: middle-aged, even split between male and female, upper middle class.
  • Values: Quality at mid-price points. Has an experienced palate and prefers dryer reds over other styles.
  • One Word For Approach To Wine: ‘Savor’
  • Goal: Obtaining highly-rated bottles without premium price points, although interested in paying more for tasty wine.
  • Bottles: Winemakers Own Blend Series, Heritage Cab

 

Becky: The Bargain Hunter

  • Attributes: below 35, skews female, middle-class
  • Values: approachable wine at bargain price points. Not a wine aficionado and likes a sweeter and drinkable wine.
  • One Word For Approach to Wine: ‘Fun’
  • Goal: Finding quality wine at entry-level price points.
  • Bottles: Vineyard Red Blend, Vineyard Chardonnay, Vineyard Sparkling Wine

 

Greg: The Local Lover

  • Attributes: 21-35.
  • Values: local craft wines.
  • One Word For Approach To Wine: ‘Find’
  • Goal: enjoying local wares. Will pay more for local, organic wine.
  • Bottles: Organic Series

 

The goal with these personas is not to know every piece of information you possibly can about your audience. It is, however, to recognize the differences between the different groups and take action accordingly.

For instance, you might be sure to include wine ratings and awards in any promotional materials or messaging around the Winemakers Own Blend Series since you know that the target audience of this wine appreciates highly reviewed bottles. The keywords you employ in your content, web pages, and Google Ad campaigns will vary from persona to persona as well.

For example, if you’re promoting the Organic Series, you might discover that “local wine” and “local vineyards” are great keywords for reaching your fictitious ‘Greg’ persona. Again, you don’t need to get it all perfect. However, we do recommend using personas to see the differences between subsets of your audience and use them to your advantage!

Consult With JSL Marketing & Web Design

If you’re looking for a marketing partner to help you take your business to new heights, turn to JSL Marketing & Web Design! We’re an award-winning marketing agency headquartered in Dallas, TX. We like to think we do great work, but don’t just take our word for it; take the word of our customers!

“They’ve been wonderful to work with. They’re always on top of any task…no matter how small.” – Melissa W, healthcare industry. 

“It was a quick and easy process, and we couldn’t be happier with our end product.” – Carter H, Grand Rapids, MI. 

The reason for our success is simple. We don’t offer cookie-cutter solutions or one-size fits all strategies. We take the time to discuss your unique situation with you and work to design a marketing strategy that aligns with your needs. Marketing is all about messaging to the correct segments, and we want to ensure that your business is being promoted in a unique and strategic way.

We offer…

 

  • Email Marketing
  • SEO
  • Web Design
  • Paid Media
  • Video Marketing & Branding
  • Social Media Management
  • & More

 

Book Your Free Consultation Today!

How to Interpret the TikTok Drama as a Marketer

If you’re following media and marketing in the news, then you know just how controversial a topic TikTok is! This behemoth video platform has rocketed in importance in the media landscape, but it has also drawn the ire of many lawmakers and policy experts at the state and local levels. Now, some are even going so far as to propose bans on TikTok. What will the impact of these measures be on marketers?

We might not have a crystal ball, but we can make some recommendations about how marketers should prepare for any potential or probable TikTok drama.

Read on to Learn More!

The Context of the TikTok Drama

TikTok has exploded onto the social media scene in the last few years. By some estimates, TikTok has over a billion users, and 150 million are located in the U.S. This has also led to TikTok’s viability as a marketing platform increasing as well. With that type of reach, TikTok has been a great destination for advertisers, and the platform pulled in a cool 10 billion in 2022.

However, TikTok has not gained this type of fame without making some enemies along the way. Allegations of improper data storage and collaboration with the Chinese government have made TikTok a target of criticism within defense circles. Cries for banning the app have finally come to fruition, with Montana becoming the first state in the country to ban TikTok. The efficacy of this legislation and the constitutionality of the ban are still in limbo, but it is worth considering what marketers need to think through when following the public discussion on TikTok.

3 Takeaways from the TikTok Drama

TikTok Bans Would Impact Certain Industries

Any potential TikTok ban would certainly have ramifications for a myriad of different industries, but those consequences would not be equally distributed. Large brands that use video content on TikTok in the form of paid advertising would likely merely pivot to another advertising platform. Other industries would be upended by TikTok-prohibiting legislation. Many online influencers or performers currently use their own TikTok content as a quick way of reaching additional eyes, and any ban would have drastic consequences for smaller individuals, brands, or movements.

Other Social Channels Would See a Rise

If advertisers divested from TikTok, either as a consequence of legislation or due to increased public scrutiny, we’re fairly confident who would be the big winners: TikTok’s rivals. Most advertisers who are using TikTok use it for brand awareness and conversion-based advertising campaigns. Divestment from TikTok would almost certainly result in a transition to other brand and conversion-based marketing plays. This would theoretically float all boats, but we would expect to see the biggest increase in ad revenue at Facebook and Google.

All advertising platforms at these two multimedia conglomerates would benefit, but YouTube and Instagram advertising are the two we would really expect to see fill the void left by TikTok. These mediums are visual-focused, great for short-form video content, and are also super targeted. We’re keeping our eyes on the news for more information about any potential TikTok bans, but know that these social media platforms are useful alternatives in the meantime if you don’t feel like TikTok is a good investment at the moment.

Data Security Is a Top Concern

Regardless of where you fall in the TikTok debate, one thing is clear. Data security is a huge concern at the moment and one that is likely to stay top of mind throughout 2023. This is actually a bigger macroeconomic trend. TikTok is just the latest flashpoint in the story of consumer data and how to protect it. Cambridge Analytica, numerous Facebook data leaks, high-profile cases of doxxing via social media, and the deprecation of cookies by Google have all been in the news over the last few years. TikTok is the most controversial topic within the data security space at the moment, but we assure you that it will not be the last. Savvy marketers would do wise to think about how they are securing data and assuring users that their data policies are sufficient. This has always been a good practice in the digital age, and it’s now becoming a necessity.

Expect the Market to Adapt

It’s always difficult to say where proposed regulations will take the industry. It is, however, likely that these regulations will lead to massive changes in the industry and probably in unexpected ways. Maybe regulation will open the door for other US-based video apps. Maybe large corporations will prioritize other video channels or use lobbying to advocate for less regulation of Tik Tok. Maybe user consumption of viral video content will change. Regardless of the impact, it is almost certain these regulations WILL have some sort of massive impact on the marketing industry and likely in unforeseen ways.

Reach out to JSL Marketing & Web Design for a custom consultation on how to use your marketing for the best results! Whether it’s SEO, video marketing, or social media, we’re waiting in the wings to help you achieve the results you need!

Fill Out the Contact Form to Get in Touch Today!

4 Pieces of Sales Collateral Your Business Needs

Proper sales collateral can mean the difference between a successful revenue team and a so-so revenue team, but many small businesses aren’t tapping into this resource. 

Sales collateral helps your sales team educate potential clients about your brand and is usually developed by your marketing team or marketing agency. If done right, sales collateral keeps your sellers on brand, simplifies your offering to your potential clients, and gives your sellers resources to consult and leave behind. Not bad outcomes at all!

The problem is that many small businesses haven’t developed the necessary sales collateral to grow their business. We’re helping change that. Read on to learn about common mistakes we see businesses make when writing sales collateral and the pieces of sales collateral you need to develop for your business. 

Common Sales Collateral Mistakes

Sales Collateral Mistake 1: Failing To Segment

Many organizations tend to only think of their sales teams as a “bottom of the marketing funnel resource.” That can be a mistake. Depending on the deal, the customer, and how they came to your brand, the potential customer might actually be at the top or middle of the marketing funnel when they first talk to a salesperson. Low-funnel sales collateral won’t make a difference if the prospect is still only comparing your product or solution to a competitor. To combat this, ensure that your sales team has content for all stages of the deal cycle. This will vary from customer to customer. Typically, we recommend infographics for top-of-funnel, battle cards for prospects considering you versus another competitor, and case studies for mid-funnel.

Sales Collateral Mistake 2: Reusing Marketing Content As Sales Content

We want to clarify something here. Repurposing marketing content CAN be really useful. However, some small businesses, strapped for time, sometimes copy and paste marketing content from email marketing or their website into a piece of sales collateral. That’s likely a mistake. We have found that the prospect’s needs in the sales cycle are so different from their needs when they’re first learning about your brand. Now, rewriting or building upon a past blog or email promotion to create your sales collateral is a great option. Just be sure to adjust appropriately if you reuse marketing content in sales collateral.

Sales Collateral Mistake 3: Failing To Divide External & Internal Content

Not all sales collateral is meant to be read by the end prospect. Sometimes, your sales team needs help overcoming objections, synthesizing information, and staying true to your brand’s message. If sellers need help communicating the finer points of your value proposition, then internal-only talk tracks might be necessary pieces of sales collateral. Just be sure that it is crystal clear which piece of content is meant to be read by a prospect and which is only for a seller to consult. You don’t want to inadvertently give a prospect your entire sales playbook merely because a seller was unsure what was external and what was internal. This division of sales content into external and internal can also save you time. A properly branded piece of sales collateral requires a lot of graphic design to really impress a prospect. An internal-only piece might require a little less. 

Sales Collateral Mistake 4: Failing To Align Sales & Marketing

Too many brands think of the line between sales and marketing as a line in the sand. In this framework, every deal can be neatly and cleanly handed off from marketing to the sales team. A clear before and after, where the deal has passed from marketing to sales. However, this framework doesn’t help sales and marketing work together to close deals.

 Let’s walk through an example. Imagine a lead found your website on Google, thanks to your SEO campaign, and submitted a request for an appointment. A sales rep then schedules time with them to review their problem. In the “line in the sand” approach, marketing’s job is done. The lead has gone off their plate and is on the sales team’s plate. However, in our opinion, the marketing team’s job isn’t over; it’s only morphed! We recommend including that lead on email marketing promotions, even as they chat with your sales team, for the best results. The lead is likely still learning about your brand, and your marketing content is still useful, even as they plan out a deal with Sales. 

The more marketing and sales collaborate to move deals through to close, the better your outcomes will be. Trust us. 

Common Types of Sales Collateral

 

  • Case Studies: Everyone says that they’re the best. Potential clients are thus a little skeptical, and that skepticism is warranted. Combat this skepticism with social proof in the form of a case study. This demonstration of your excellence proves you’re the real deal. If you have a client that is willing to testify on camera about what you did for them, even better.

 

  • Battle Cards: When your prospect is considering your solution vs a direct competitor, nothing is as useful to your sales team as a battle card. This side-by-side comparison demonstrates the offerings, strengths, and differences between you and any given competitor and gives your sales team a talk track to help overcome objections. It’s important to note that battle cards can be both client-facing and merely an internal resource to help your sellers format their responses to objections. 

 

  • Whitepapers: Sometimes, your solution is a technically complex one, or your prospect’s need is very intricate. A whitepaper highlighting your thought leadership and industry expertise, is a great piece of sales collateral for these situations. The end goal of a well-written whitepaper is to elaborate on an industry problem at a high level of detail. These pieces of content are usually great resources to leave with prospects as conversations are beginning to demonstrate what your brand has contributed to the industry’s conversation around a topic.

 

  • Infographics: Infographics are quick, digestible pieces of content that outline what problem you solve and what that means for your prospect. This piece of sales collateral should be one-page and boost plenty of graphics and eye-catching images. The goal with this piece of collateral isn’t to win a deal immediately; it’s to give the client a quick run-down of who you are and build some awareness. We recommend sending this piece of sales collateral out after meetings with prospects so that they have a summary piece of content to consult later or show to other internal team members. 

 

Develop Your Dream Sales Collateral With JSL

As a small business, you don’t have the marketing resources that a larger sales organization might. That’s okay! You can still compete at the highest level with the help of a quality marketing agency.

JSL Marketing & Web Design is an award-winning marketing agency headquartered in Dallas, TX. We’ve been helping clients develop their dream content for years and are waiting in the wings to help you put your story on the page!

In addition to any of the above pieces of sales collateral, we might also recommend…

 

  • Formalizing A Brand Style Guide
  • A Competitive Analysis
  • Market Research
  • Logo & Graphic Design Improvements
  • Digital Marketing
  • & More

 

Fill Out The Contact Form To Talk Shop

How Should Marketers Use ChatGPT?

If you’ve been following the news lately, you know that Chat GPT is the newest and hottest trend. The advent of  Open AI’s ChatGPT has the world abuzz and its reverberations are likely to be felt across a multitude of industries.

Data and tech types have been enraptured by how advanced the machine language processing of ChatGPT is. Employment experts are torn over whether or not this tech will create more jobs or result in widespread layoffs. And then some of us are just trying to write essays about world history in the style of a Nickelodeon cartoon. Regardless of your thoughts on ChatGPT and opinions on whether it’s a net positive or another piece of tech humanity is too incompetent to use correctly, it’s impossible to deny that Chat GPT will have a huge impact on the world.

The marketing world is not immune from this buzz. The practical benefits and technical imperfections of ChatGPT have got many in the industry asking themselves a question: how should marketers use ChatGPT?

We have our thoughts on the pros and cons of ChatGPT and whether or not it is capable of changing the marketing world. ChatGPT is an exciting and revolutionary piece of tech, but we don’t see it taking any marketing jobs quite yet. However, we are excited about the tech and what it could possibly do for the marketing world.

Read Onto Learn More About ChatGPT & How Marketers Should Use It! 

What ChatGPT Can’’t Do

ChatGPT is an amazing piece of tech, but it does have limitations. The technology is so new that comprehensive analysis has not been done, but some flaws are readily apparent. Experts have noticed that ChatGPT is phenomenal at processing information, but it lacks the ability to analyze at times. So, for instance, if you ask ChatGPT to write an essay about if a multi-level marketing scheme is worth it, it will succinctly recap the pros and cons for you.

However, ChatGPT will not weight these positions towards the evidence for each position, but will instead merely offer both the evidence for and against an MLM as equally valid. This sort of noncommittal and apathetic summary is fine if you ask ChatGPT to discuss the pros and cons of New World Vs Old World wine, since these are taste-dependent opinions. It could potentially be life-altering if ChatGPT takes this approach with something as serious as a medical, legal, or engineering question. ChatGPT can summarize well, but it can’t offer professional recommendations the same way a tenured doctor, lawyer or engineer could. (Or at least, it can’t yet.)

ChatGPT also is designed to give answers. It’s not designed to ensure that every piece of information presented is fully accurate. So, it is possible for ChatGPT to offer different answers to the exact same question, if prompted consecutively. Remember, ChatGPT wants to give you what you’re looking for, even if you already have received correct information.

These aren’t the only flaws with the system. ChatGPT is often too verbose when compared to a human professional’s recommendation, it often struggles with idioms and slang, and it cannot quite express complex emotions as simply as humans can. As it turns out, there actually are elements of being human that AI can’t fully experience and understand.

These flaws don’t render ChatGPT useless. It is important, however, to remember what the system can and cannot do. With that in mind, you can be better positioned to use ChatGPT effectively in ways that the tech can shine.

ChatGPT Marketing Use 1: Rough Draft

The main capability of ChatGPT as we see it is its ability to generate rough drafts. Every marketer who has written marketing copy before knows that not all drafts see the light of day and for good reason. Sometimes, you need to scrap a few drafts before you end up on the right path. All of these rewrites burn time. ChatGPT potentially could be your new resource for rough drafts. Ask ChatGPT to write your rough drafts and then consult what it has produced. Do you like the structure? Is the style what you’re going for? Is something lacking?

These rough drafts don’t merely provide you a resource to consult; they potentially could be a start on your final iteration. If your topic is simple enough, consider cleaning up and smoothing out the rough edges of ChatGPT’s first draft to get to your end draft. Your marketing content production time has just been halved without any drop in quality.

ChatGPT Marketing Use 2: Insight Stream

Similarly to the rough draft idea, ChatGPT offers marketers the ability to pull in additional insights through ChatGPT’s automation. Imagine you need to write a whitepaper for a very specific and technical industry. Typically, this would require quite a bit of research and planning to fully understand the layout and structure necessary for this whitepaper. Now, let’s say you have access to ChatGPT and decide to ask ChatGPT to write a rough draft for you. Basically, nothing too different from our previously mentioned rough draft idea.

As previously mentioned, you’ll need to edit, fact-check and reformat elements of the ChatGPT rough draft. However, ChatGPT’s machine-learning allows it to access more information than any one human could analyze. This means that ChatGPT will likely take your whitepaper in a different direction than you would have previously thought of taking. The nuances ChatGPT includes could prompt you to research an industry-specific trend you were not previously aware of and thus create a stronger and more compelling white paper. Essentially, ChatGPT is now your free machine-learning researcher and that’s a great resource for a marketer to have on standby, especially for technical writing.

ChatGPT Marketing Use 3: Expedite Processes

ChatGPT’s main strength is that it is capable of speeding up production times. While it’s not intelligent enough to automate certain high-level tasks, ChatGPT is sophisticated enough to perform writing tasks that previously only humans could complete. Imagine the basic and tedious typing and retyping that goes into writing social media posts, email campaigns and paid search campaigns. These sorts of writing tasks usually aren’t terribly complex, but they do take time.

Just like how ChatGPT can be used to make rough drafts, it can also be used to take first stabs at copy. While it will require research, editing, and strategic insight to approve and use ChatGPT’s copy, the machine-learning is nuanced enough to speed up the production of marketing assets. The more mundane elements of marketing writing can be automated at this point. Marketers can now focus on researching, planning, and testing campaign specifics and outsource the tedious elements of writing to ChatGPT.

ChatGPT Marketing Use 4: Experiment

No one writes marketing content just to write content. If you’re writing marketing copy, you’re doing so for your audience, whether you’re a freelancer, a marketing agency, an internal marketing team, or a business owner and these stakeholders typically want their marketing content written a certain way. Typically, you have deadlines, style guides, and target keywords to be aware of as well. That’s without the stressors of all of the other hats you wear in both your professional and personal life. Unfortunately, due to budget and time constraints, most marketers don’t experiment with creative writing in their marketing projects.

But what if that could change? What if ChatGPT could be your soundboard for changes in content tone? Imagine having the ability to ask ChatGPT to write four or five different blogs or email promotions, but each with a distinct tone. Maybe your brand has always had a more laid back tone, but you see elements of ChatGPT’s crack at a formalized tone that intrigue you. Maybe you’ve struggled with writing conversational ad copy, but you see glimmers of a new brand voice with ChatGPT. That could potentially revolutionize your brand’s tone and messaging and without much effort at all on your end!

ChatGPT Marketing Use 5: A/B Test

This isn’t a direct use of ChatGPT, but rather an outgrowth of the product. As we’ve mentioned prior, ChatGPT has the potential to cut production times dramatically and basically automate mundane writing tasks. Now, imagine using ChatGPT to produce different and distinct styles of email messages, ad copy and blogs. We recommend investing that extra time into evaluating which version of a piece of content drives the best results.

Marketers have been A/B and A/B/C testing since the dawn of time, but too often, the time required to create copy prohibits many marketing teams from really A/B/C testing as often as they should. With ChatGPT, the time spent to create ad copy is removed as a constraint and marketers can now test virtually endless combinations of copy in their paid ads, email campaigns, and web content.

Evaluate Your Marketing Strategy With JSL Marketing & Web Design

ChatGPT will absolutely shake up the marketing world. This new technology means that producing quality marketing content will be easier than ever. However, the mere use of ChatGPT will not guarantee success. More and more businesses will rely on ChatGPT to produce more content than ever in the years ahead and proper marketing strategy will become more and more important. The difference between successful brands and mediocre brands in the post-ChatGPT world won’t be technology; it will be strategy, ability to pivot, and research capabilities. Good tech means faster production times, but a strategic and well-researched mindset always trumps tech in the marketing world, in our experience.

Need some help getting your marketing strategy ironed out? Turn to JSL Marketing & Web Design! We’re ready to discuss …

 

  • Brand Messaging
  • Content Strategy
  • Branding & Logo Design
  • Market Research
  • Competitive Analysis
  • & More!

 

Fill Out The Contact Form Below For A Free Consultation

5 Quick Google Ad Optimizations

If you’re looking for quick Google Ad optimizations, you’ve come to the right place!

Google Ads is the premier destination for advertisers online. Millions of dollars are spent on Google every day and it’s estimated that Google Ads generates over 140 billion dollars a year for Alphabet. Google Ads is a staple of the global digital marketing ecosystem and thousands upon thousands of advertisers use this platform to reach their consumers. The reason why is simple. Google Ads offers a cost-effective pricing model, substantial reach and enhanced reporting. If you are a small business owner who is not utilizing Google Ads, we strongly recommend you begin investing in paid search campaigns to grow your business..

However, every pay-per-click marketer knows that managing Google Ads is part science, part art.. The Google Ads pay-per-click marketplace is a dynamic and ever changing environment and even the best campaigns need tweaks to ensure best results. While we wish it was possible to set and forget ad campaigns, there will be times that optimizations are necessary. Enter our recommendations for quick Google Ad fixes!

It’s important to note that these are quick fixes. All of these recommendations are simple and straightforward changes that any pay-per-click marketer worth their salt could implement in an hour or two. They will improve performance on any ad account, but they won’t immediately right the ship if your keyword strategy is off, your budget is too low, or your copy is poorly written. Rather, the below list of optimizations are simple steps for improvement that we recommend you start with. 80% improvement can be seen from 20% of the work, as they say, so we recommend starting with simple fixes before investing more time in substantive and more technically-complex optimizations.

Google Ad Fix 1: Negative Keywords

Negative keywords are phrases that Google will block from your ad campaigns. As a rule, search specialists use the tactic to exclude search terms they don’t want to spend money on. Every keyword you target on Google Ads will inevitably receive clicks from search terms that aren’t relevant. It’s just a part of digital marketing. Think of targeting “cheese” as a search term and receiving clicks from “cheese cake.” The good news is that this waste can be prevented and minimized with the addition of specific negative keywords.

Imagine you are a specialty online cheese shop. You have a “Manchego” ad group with specific keywords centered on this cheese product you offer. When you go and analyze search term reports, you see that this keyword is appearing for a variety of search terms. Let’s say that “what is manchego” and “what is manchego cheese” are two common terms you appear for.

You see, however, that while you receive a lot of clicks from these search terms, you have not received a single purchase from these terms. That’s to be expected; the “what is” search terms signal an interest in learning about manchego cheese, not necessarily an interest in purchasing. In addition to blocking these individual search terms, we’d recommend adding “what is” as a negative keyword. Proactively and strategically using negative keywords allows you to refine your Google Ads campaigns and focus on the terms that are most impactful for your business.

Google Ad Fix 2: Pause Low-Performers

Out of all of the fixes we recommend, this might be the easiest solution. Sometimes, the exclusion of poor performing ads, keywords and ad groups can be all you need to see better results. Let’s say in our cheese shop example, you’ve been running ad campaigns for a quarter and have some data to work with. You see in the Google Ads user interface that your Parmesan, Manchego, and Gorgonzola ad groups are producing a positive return on ad spend and the Specialty Cheeses ad group has produced only one sale, despite taking up 10% of your budget. Pausing Specialty Cheeses is likely a good call to free up budget to go towards more cost-effective ad groups.

The same principle holds true for individual ads and keywords. We recommend ensuring that you have enough data to justify any pause, but sometimes, disinvesting from certain ads, ad groups, and keywords is the right strategy for Google Ads Success.

Google Ads Fix 3: Evaluate Match Types

We like to use a fishing analogy to explain Google Ads to a non-marketing audience. Think of the search terms users type into Google like particular types of fish. The keywords you decide to enable, which will trigger your ads showing for a particular search term, are bait. Some keywords might sound like a good way to catch a certain type of search term, but actually only bring in unwanted search terms. Some align well to a premier type of search term and might not catch many search terms, but catch high-quality clicks.

That’s where match types come in. Match types tell Google Ads how wide a net to cast with any given keyword, to continue the fishing analogy. The three “nets” are board match, phrase match, and exact match and each has a unique advantage and disadvantage.

Let’s say you’re targeting the keyword “marketing agencies in Dallas.” That one keyword could potentially appear for very different search terms, depending on the match type selected. With a broad match type, you would reach Google users researching topics related to “marketing agencies in Dallas.” With a phrase match, your ads would appear for search queries with the same meaning as your specific keywords. An exact match type would only let your ads be triggered by search terms with the exact same meaning as your keyword. So, to recap, a broad match type will reach the widest, but least refined audience, an exact match type will reach the narrowest, but most refined audience, with phrase match being between the two.

Let’s return to our cheese shop analogy. Let’s say that the Parmesan ad group is hardly getting any clicks. A good way of combating this would be to utilize more broad match and phrase match keywords, if you’re mostly running exact match keywords. Inversely, if this ad group was wasting budget and clicks on unrelated search terms, you’re probably casting too wide a net and need to focus on phrase and exact match, if you’re running only broad match keywords.

Google Ads Fix 4: Consider The Landing Page

Landing page experience is a key component of quality scores, the measure Google Ads uses to evaluate how relevant your ad is to what the user typed into Google. If your ad takes those who click it to a poorly-correlated landing page, you will be dinged for it by Google.

Now, you don’t need to be egregiously wrong with the landing pages you drive traffic towards to pay a price. If you’re not smart with the landing pages you select for your ad campaigns, you can still suffer a consequence. Let’s again return to our online cheese shop. Let’s say all ads lead towards your homepage. That’s not a bad destination at all! However, remember that, in this fictitious example, you’re running multiple ad groups for specific cheese search terms. Your homepage is a fine landing page, but if a user clicks on an ad promoting “cheddar cheese,” they’re probably expecting to see that product on the landing page they end up on.

With that in mind, consider the results your campaign could see with a few landing pagechanges. We’d recommend choosing cheese-specific landing pages for specific ad groups. Let’s say your web page has a Parmesan subsection, for instance. We’d recommend placing that as your landing page for that specific ad group for best results! Reducing the number of clicks necessary to complete a purchase and aligning ads to the contents of the landing page is a great strategy to increase checkouts and ensure that you are not suffering a relevancy ding from Google.

Google Ads Fix 5: Evaluate Your Strategy & Adjust Bidding

Google Ads allows users to set distinct bidding strategies to help maximize campaign performance. We could spend days discussing the tech and strategies behind each one, but for now, know that each bidding strategy correlates to a goal for that campaign. For instance, a “maximize clicks” bidding strategy tells Google to prioritize clicks on your ads over all other key performance indicators. A “maximize conversions” bidding strategy tells the platform to focus on conversions, like phone calls, check outs, or requests for information, over all other key performance indicators.

Now, it’s imperative that you utilize the right bidding strategy when setting up a Google Ads campaign and that your selected bidding strategy correlates to your wider business objectives. This might sound obvious, but you would be surprised how easy it is to select the wrong bidding strategy if you are unfamiliar with Google Ads. Let’s once again return to our cheese shop. In this instance, conversions, or checkouts from the site’s online store, are probably going to be the most impactful for this business’s bottom line.

However, let’s assume that the cheese shop is new and has very little brand recognition. Because of this,  the shop’s main goal is to get as many eyes on its ads, website, and content as possible, to familiarize the market with the shop’s name and cheese offerings. A slower start to online sales is fine with the cheese shop, since they know that they need the brand recognition to kick off their digital marketing. Given all of that information, a Target Impression Share bidding strategy might actually be best for the cheese shop, since they just want to familiarize their target customers with their wares, even if that means less online sales in the short term. We’d likely recommend quickly copying and relaunching the shop’s campaigns with a Target Impression Share bid strategy.

Maybe you’re focusing on CTR as the main goal for your ad campaigns, but need to report on Return on Ad Spend to show success. Maybe you’re focusing on Return On Ad Spend as a main goal, despite the fact that your product is quite technical and complicated and is often purchased after a long and deliberative sales cycle. Regardless of what your use case is, consider what bidding strategy you’re using in Google Ads and determine if you need to make tweaks to better align with your business needs.

Improve Google Ads With JSL

It’s again worth repeating that these are all quick fixes. These recommendations are simple, easy-to-implement, and don’t require a lot of time. Plus, all of these recommendations will help improve performance. However, if your Google Ads strategy needs more work, none of these corrections will work miracles. That’s not to say that our recommendations aren’t effective; sometimes, more effort and research is needed to achieve better results if you’re in a high-competition market or new to Pay-Per-Click marketing.

That’s where we come in.

JSL Marketing & Web Design is a full-service marketing agency, based out of Dallas, Texas. We’re not only an industry-leader in SEO; we’re your strategic advisor on all things marketing related.

Depending on your unique needs, we can work on improving…

 

  • Ad Messaging
  • A/B Testing
  • Keyword Research
  • Audience Targeting & Observing
  • Competitive Marketplace Positioning
  • Landing Page Experience
  • Ad Group Breakouts
  • & More!

 

Fill Out The Contact Form For A Free Google Ads Audit!